New flu kills third in span of five days
Pandemic back with vengeance
Kyodo News

The H1N1 swine flu pandemic claimed its third victim Wednesday as Nagoya health authorities confirmed that an 81-year-old woman from the city died early in the morning.

Separately, at least five children hit by the new influenza, in Okinawa and Kumamoto prefectures and Kawasaki, were in serious condition and four were on artificial respirators as of Wednesday evening, local governments said.

The latest death prompted health minister Yoichi Masuzoe to warn that the H1N1 flu pandemic, or “shingata infuruenza” (new-type influenza), may be back with a vengeance.

Masuzoe said further attempts would be made to protect those most vulnerable to the flu – young people, pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses – by disseminating information on the highly infectious disease, which shut down several schools in the Kansai region after rapidly infecting hundreds of people, mostly high-school students, in late spring.

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The Nagoya woman marks the third domestic fatality linked to the new flu in five days. First a 57-year-old Okinawa man died Saturday, then a 77-year-old Kobe man succumbed Tuesday.

Nagoya officials said the woman had other underlining illnesses – multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, and a weak heart. She died of acute pneumonia.

The Nagoya woman, who had never been abroad, was moved to an isolation ward Saturday after developing a 39.5-degree fever and severe coughing after hospitalization Thursday. She was belatedly diagnosed with H1N1 Tuesday. Makoto Utsumi, deputy head of Nagoya Medical Center, said Wednesday.

Doctors said they thought she had pneumonia.

“If we had conducted a (flu) test at an earlier stage, we could have offered a different treatment,”

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